


tea for the tillerman

by buckybear (antoniohiggins)



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man - All Media Types, Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Awesome May Parker (Spider-Man), Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Loss of Parent(s), Peter Parker Needs a Hug, Precious Peter Parker, Tony Stark Acting as Peter Parker's Parental Figure, idk what else to tag honestly, lemme fix that, seriously she's the best mom ever, the peter & may tag has a disappointingly low amount of content
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-13
Updated: 2019-01-13
Packaged: 2019-10-09 06:40:52
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,474
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17401931
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/antoniohiggins/pseuds/buckybear
Summary: we all love the 'peter calling tony dad' trope but i'm pretty sure the whole scenario would freak peter out at least a little bitaka: peter accidentally calls tony 'dad' and has a heart to heart with may about it





	tea for the tillerman

**Author's Note:**

> no trigger warnings, just much-needed aunt may & peter content
> 
> (also this is not edited so if there are any spelling or grammar mistakes, i'm so sorry)
> 
> ((oh and the title is from the album of one of my favorite songs that reminds me of tony and peter))

It had been driving him insane for days.

_“Thanks dad!” He called, climbing into the backseat of the car as he waved goodbye to Tony._

He hadn’t meant for it to happen, in fact, he barely even noticed until Happy brought it up.

_“Hey kid, what was that about?”_

_He was seconds away from asking what the man meant before he froze._

He’d been dodging May ever since he came home from the compound. He couldn’t look at her without thinking of how, with two little words, he had betrayed her.

How dare he call Tony ‘dad’ when Aunt May had been like a mom to him for as long as he could remember, yet he never called her as such.

_“Oh my god I said that out loud.” Happy only laughed._

_“Sure did kiddo.”_

_Peter didn’t say another word for the rest of the drive home. If Happy said anything else, he wasn’t listening._

It was easy to just tell May he had homework to catch up on when that was usually the case after he started going patrolling nearly every day after school. Their deal was that she didn’t mind him doing it in the afternoon when he finished school as long as he came home before sunset to do his homework. She didn’t question why he stayed in his room once he came home every day.

Four days after his return from the weekend spent at the Avengers compound upstate, he could tell May was getting suspicious. To be fair, he wasn’t exactly the most convincing actor when it came to making excuses for why he wouldn’t tell her about what they worked on all weekend or who he got to meet.

He should’ve seen an intervention coming.

“Peter?” She knocked on his door that fourth night as he laid in bed reading a book for his English class. He grabbed one of his web shooters off his desk, shooting it at the door know and swinging it open. May jumped slightly when she saw how he had opened the door.

“I will never get used to that,” she chuckled, crossing the room as she sat at the end of Peter’s bed, the boy curling his legs up more to make unnecessary room. He shifted around, visibly nervous. “So, do you think you could _finally_ spare a few minutes and tell me how your trip went?”

Peter gulped.

“Y-yeah,” he mumbled, folding over the corner of his book page and setting it down. “What do you, um, what do you want to know?”

May sighed, grabbing one of the boy’s hands between both of hers. He looked afraid when he met her eyes.

“Sweetheart,” she started pausing as if to wait for him to say something. “Ever since you came back from the compound you’ve been quiet.”

Peter chuckled awkwardly, rubbing the back of his neck with his free hand.

“I thought you liked quiet,” he mumbled, a joking undertone to his words.

“Oh I _love_ the quiet, don’t get me wrong,” she teased, the boy laughing a little with her. “But it doesn’t feel like home if you’re not bombarding me with stories and questions from sunrise to sunset.”

He looked down. All of this started with him breaking an unspoken promise with her and he should’ve known it was only a matter of time before he had to tell her.

“I...messed up, Aunt May,” he nearly whispered. May looked a bit startled but didn’t let it linger for long once she saw the first tear fall.

“Oh honey,” she signed, moving close enough to pull her nephew into her chest. Peter sank into her as soon as she moved. “Peter, baby, whatever happened I promise you I’m not mad.”

He shook his head against her shoulder.

“You’ll hate me,” he mumbled, his voice muffled by her work scrubs.

May chuckled.

“Peter,” she sighed, taking the boy’s face in her hands and moving him so that he finally looked her in the eyes. She carefully brushed his tears away with her thumbs. “There is absolutely _nothing_ you could ever do that would make me hate you. Not even a little bit.”

He blinked at her, his watery red eyes forcing out a few more tears.

“I called him ‘dad’,” he blurted before he could stop himself. May’s expression changed, but only to one of confusion.

“Who? Tony?” Peter nodded, squeezing his eyes shut as he ducked his head.

And at first, she didn’t understand. If anything, she was surprised he hadn’t done it already. She had known about most details of their relationship ever since shortly after she met the man, both from Peter giving her enthusiastically-detailed accounts of all of their meetings and training sessions and Tony dutifully keeping up his promise to make sure May was kept in the loop about everything spidey-related.

Hell, she assumed that when Tony had invited her over to talk about putting Peter in his goddamn _will_ that they had at least progressed past the mentor-student formalities.

But then she realized exactly why he was upset the moment the words left his mouth.

“I never c-called Uncle Ben that,” he whimpered, practically burying himself in her jacket. “And he was the closest thing to a real d-dad that I’ve ever had.”

Her hands carefully moved to comb through his hair.

“I called him Ben once,” she admitted, resting her chin on his head, only for him to pull back immediately.

“What?” He croaked, staring at her with confusion.

“That night at the decathlon competition,” she continued nonchalantly. Besides, she had made peace with it herself after it happened. “It just slipped out. I went to ask him where the car was parked and I just said it. Like, I knew he wasn't Ben, but in the moment he reminded me of him and it slipped out before I even noticed who I had said it to.”

Peter looked like he was about to start crying again and May immediately reconsidered her idea to tell him.

“You’re not...you’re not mad at me?”

Nevermind.

“Peter, sweetheart, I’m so happy for you,” she explained, grabbing both of his hands. Peter froze, shaking his head slightly out of confusion. “I’ve always wanted nothing more than for you to be happy. As for Tony...you know he and I didn’t exactly see eye to eye about everything at first, but he cares about you so much, sweetie.”

Peter stumbled over his words, “N-no he’s not...he doesn’t think of it like that, he...he just...”

“He just knows it scares him to let people in. He probably won’t say anything about it, but he cares about you so much more than you know. I’m sure having someone like you who looks up to him and genuinely enjoys spending time with him is something he never knew he wanted, Peter,” May assures him, her hand cupping the boy’s cheek. “What you two have is so special, honey. At first, yeah I have to admit I was a little jealous, but you _need_ this. You deserve this, Peter. You are _my_ son and you have been since the day Ben and I took you in, but you deserve more.”

Peter leaned his head into her hand. May could feel his tears seep through her fingers. The boy sniffles.

“He’s good people. You deserve as many good things in your life as you can get because lord knows you’ve had enough bad ones,” she sighed, chuckling lightly and wrapping her arms around her kid’s shoulders, pulling him into her chest. Peter hugged her back immediately. “That’s all Ben ever wanted too.”

Peter nodded into her chest, his wavy hair brushing her chin.

“And I think you should call Tony. If you want, I’ll let you leave tomorrow after school instead of waiting until Saturday morning,” she tempted, smirking as Peter immediately shot up.

“Really?” He beamed, his eyes still watery and his cheeks still flushed. “You mean it?”

She laughed, quickly brushing the tears off his face.

“I mean if you really think you can miss our weekly Friday night _Drag Race_ party..,” she teased.

“Bold of you to assume Tony doesn’t watch _RuPaul’s Drag Race_ too,” Peter fires back, earning a laugh from his aunt as she climbed off his bed.

“You see, _now_ I know he’s good for you,” she chuckled, heading for the door. “I’m about to get started on dinner. Call Tony, tell him you’re coming straight to the compound after school tomorrow.”

Peter nodded excitedly as May closed his bedroom door behind her before quickly dialing Tony’s number and pressing the call button. He slid off his bed and plopped down into his desk swivel chair as it rang, already planning how he would answer when Tony finally picked up the phone.

“Hey, dad!”

**Author's Note:**

> thank you all for reading!! i absolutely love every comment that i get, they keep me inspired to write more and please leave some kudos too if you enjoyed this! 
> 
> i'm still pretty new to writing marvel fanfics, but if you liked this, feel free to request something!


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